South Africa’s Project Isizwe has won $75 000 (almost R1 million) in funding from a global Mozilla contest, for its Afri-Fri free public Wi-Fi initiative.
The key goal of Afri-Fri is to create a sustainable business model by linking together free Wi-Fi networks throughout South Africa and engaging users meaningfully with advertisers so they can ‘earn’ free Wi-Fi. It also connects some of the most marginalised communities within South Africa, and is leading the free Internet movement to low-income communities who other- wise cannot afford connectivity.
“Free Wi-Fi removes the barriers to education, social inclusion, skills development and job applications. In short, free Wi-Fi empowers,” says Tim Genders, COO of Project Isizwe.
